Abhinav Singhal Delamere Vineyard & Steinway and Sons 1811361

Case: Delamere Vineyard

 What should Richardson do? How will his personality and experience shape his
decision?
Delamere reflects Richardson personality whose attention to detail is such that the focus
remains on various attributes of quality (also discussed below) and constant search for
improvement. Given the current circumstances of building the wine’s reputation along with
profits, Richardson must start with the first project as his one of the best Pinot Noir 1994
was criticized as “prematurely aged wine”. This project is basically a trade-off between
‘consistency’ and ‘character’. Even though personally he gives more weightage to character,
he knew consistency was required for the betterment of business. Also since Richardson
once in consultation with one of his colleague began wine-making in the same region, he
should again go by the experts and cash-in the recommended levels of SO 2 instead of
undergoing multiple iterations with uncertainty from barrel to barrel.
This would create a financial breathing space for Richardson. In the next year or in the form
of trials, Richardson can now focus on the perception of the customers driving the major
part of sales. Although, Richardson personally did not liked the idea of deepening the color
but the customers sought it as a reflection of good taste. The project with $30,000 in
investments will act as catalyst in improving customer reception which Richardson can
leverage by increasing prices by 10%. The investment in the new technology can be more
than compensated by expanding production in the future and increasing the processing of
grapes. This however will put a lid on third project which although is expensive and highly
risky but provide more complex and aromatic wines. Here the trade-off for Richardson will
be between ‘customer’ and ‘character’.
A little detailed comparative analysis for the available options to Richardson is as follow:

Going ahead with

Option 1 2 3
Performance Increase Increase Increase
Features Unchanged Increase Increase
Reliability Increase Increase Decrease
Conformance Increase Decrease Increase
Durability Increase Unchanged Unchanged
Serviceability Increase Increase Unchanged
Aesthetics Increase Increase Increase
Perceived Quality Increase Increase Increase

Considering the aforementioned attributes of quality and the risk appetite, Richardson
should go ahead with option 1 followed by option in trials or may be go in full with it in the
next year considering that he can only accommodate one project at a time. This may enable
him to make a balance between enjoying his wine-making process and keeping the business
growing.
Abhinav Singhal Delamere Vineyard & Steinway and Sons 1811361

Case: Steinway & Sons

 Should Steinway introduce Model K vertical piano? Why or why not?
Steinway should introduce Model K as they were facing tough times from both Yamaha and
Kawai. 21,700 out 23,000 imported were Japanese. Yamaha mostly produced verticals and
baby grands and wanted to capture the market. The prices of Japanese pianos were also
quite low. Both Yamaha and Kawai wanted to overcome Steinway’s dominance in the Grand
Piano segment and was a clear threat to them.
The Japanese put their efforts towards music schools and other institution buyers in
expectation that the customers would turn loyal and would become potential buyers of their
Grand Pianos also as Steinways was a dominant player in that category. Further, introducing
the Model K vertical will not create much difficulty for them as they have excess capacity,
and also grand and upright are separated at the finishing stage of the piano making process.
Also, since it was cheaper than grand it may attract customers who wanted to buy Steinway
but could not. The market for vertical piano is greater than grand piano.
Steinway is known for the manufacture of high quality products and technical excellence.
Thus, in terms of capabilities Steinways is more than prepared for a small transformation.
Also, CBS whom they merge with were known for capital spending and R&D was equally
given significant importance. Thus Steinway can actually invest time in Model K vertical
piano as they were really strong with the grand pianos.